International Honorary Artistic Committee

Friday, June 1, 2007

The honorary artistic committee for the three mail art exhibitions in Greece is the following:1- The Argonautshttp://mailart-greece-argo.blogspot.com/2- Refugee Solidarity Chainhttp://mailart-greece-refugees.blogspot.com/3- 1tst INTERNATIONAL MAIL ART BIENNALE IN GREECEhttp://1st-mailart-greek-biennale.blogspot.com/The committee was created in Greece and is formed by distinguished artist of mail art living in different countries. It was created in order to achieve an international contact through art and especially through mail art. This is the reason why a number of artists from many parts of the world were asked to participate in this exhibition.The moral support that they offer is their participation in this exhibition and their assistance in the promotion of mail art in my country, as well as the protection of this project from individuals who may take advantage of it for non-artistic aims. I wish to thank all artists for their participation in this project.The artists are the following:International honorary artistic committeeAdamandia Kapsalis - U.S.AAnna Boschi - ItalyClemente Padin- UruguayDale Roberts – CanadaDenis Charmot – FranceIvan Zemtsov - RussiaMick Boyle – U.S.A.Mim. Grammatikopoulos - GreecePuneet Gupta – IndiaPaul Tiilila – FinlandRyosuke Cohen -JapanSidney Tome -BrazilSuzzlee Ibrahim – MalaysiaTiziana Baracchi- Italy

We are a group of artists named “iconoplastes art group”. We have created and took part in a Central Unesco’s Project titled “My City- scenes and Sounds of my City”. We presented our city, Elassona, having Mount Olympus as the start and the end of our project, because we live in the shadow of this sacred mount.The project is: http://unesco.sjsu.edu/http://unesco.sjsu.edu/gallery/070121/kontou/index.htmlWe call you in the “1st International Mail Art Biennale in Greece”.The selected artwork will be the exposing material for the creation of the “1st Museum of Postal Art” in Greece. We would like this museum to be founded in Elassona, the city where the 1st International mail art exhibition was held under the title: “Psychedelic” (producer: Ioanna Papachristou, coordinator- curator: Thomai Kontou).Get into the site, se the project and let Olympus with its muses and Elassona, to create inner pictures. Send your works inspired from our city or your own city, your memories and way of living. In that way a lot of cities will co-exist, in this collection, through to the inspiration and soul of the artists.Title: “Cities enclosed like fields where I used to live…..for Olympus, for Elassona, or the city everyone has in his mind and heart”Media: painting, engraving, visual art, photo, artistamps.Size: postcard, A3, A4.No jury, no fee.All works are going to be exhibited. The works will be the supporting material of the Museum. So they are not going to be returned.Deadline: 20 November 2007.Documents in: http://1st-mailart-greek-biennale.blogspot.com/Exhibition coordinator- curator: Thomai Kontou (painter-mail artist)For info: thomaikontou@gmail.com or uxa53@yahoo.grThe exhibition will be held in a space that is going to be announced soon.Send your work to:Thomai KontouXanthou 940200 ElassonaGreeceInternational honorary artistic committeeAdamandia Kapsalis - U.S.AAnna Boschi - ItalyClemente Padin- UruguayDale Roberts – CanadaDenis Charmot – FranceIvan Zemtsov - RussiaMick Boyle – U.S.A.Mim. Grammatikopoulos - GreecePuneet Gupta – IndiaPaul Tiilila – FinlandRyosuke Cohen -JapanSidney Tome -BrazilSuzzlee Ibrahim – MalaysiaTiziana Baracchi- ItalyFor photos of mound Olympus get in the site:http://www.elassona.com.gr/m_photografies/olympos/1/index.phphttp://www.elassona.com.gr/m_photografies/elassona/1/index.php

*the text for UNESCO’s project: TITLE A tribute to Elassona “The city I loved, enclosed…like fields where I used to live”Elassona is a town situated on the foot of Mount Olympus, the Greek sacred mountain. It is a town that has been built 4.500 years ago and it is known as the “White Town” of the Homeric era. It is also white deeply in our heart and brain, because it is our own hometown, the place we were born and lived and where as own beloved people lived. We have attempted an artistic approach of our town having in mind the verse of the poet N. A. Aslanoglou about Elassona: “…its houses are spreading conceitedly in the plain” among these houses there are youth memories, secret corners, ruins, abandoned cars, old factories. But there is also the new life portrayed through, traditional feasts in the square, through old and new habits, the cultural buildings, and the litany of the Virgin Mary’s icon, the artist’s atelier and his lonely course. Evenings with friends, music and dreams. “Innocence and faith”. We consist a team of painters, photographers and university students. Our common point a view is our love for Elassona. Have a nice trip in our town. Iconoplastes Art Group. (Republication from republication from UNESCO’s site)

We call on the artists of the world to participate with their work in the mail art project “Refugee Solidarity Chain”.

Help us raise awareness on the needs of refugees and asylum seekers in Greece. Be a ring in the Refugee Solidarity Chain with your work and help us raise funds to support these people!Refugee is “a person who due to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country[1]”.Refugees are not immigrants who, legally or not, leave their countries voluntarily in order to improve their standard of living. Refugees arrive in Greece in a state of desperation, often abandoning their families in order to escape the danger and having lived through traumatic experiences, having seen family members, friends, and co-workers imprisoned or even executed.Moreover, they deal with very serious survival problems, because they are deprived of funds, familial and social ties, and communication due to linguistic and cultural differences.The support of these people is the main idea behind this project, organized by the Greek Council for Refugees (http://www.gcr.gr/ ), a Non Governmental Organization founded in 1989 to provide legal and psychosocial aid to refugees and asylum seekers who live in Greece. The Union of past refugees from “Black Sea- Pontus” of Elassona responded to the Council’s call for help, with the sensitivity and awareness of what really means to be a refugee, as they also were refugees some years ago.Please send us your work with:Dimensions: 10 x 15, A5, A4Material: painting, engraving, digital art, artistic photo.No returns, no fees.All work be exposed, in Art Gallery in AthensDoc. to allDeadline: 20 November 2007All works must be sent to:Dr. Karipidis Giannis6 Oktovriou 11340200 Elassona – GreeceE-mail: kaelde@yahoo.gr

There will be an exhibition of all the art works, and all funds raised by the sales will be donated to GCR, for support to the refugees who live in Greece.You will receive more detailed information about the date and the place of the exhibition in the coming weeks.

[1] This definition was adopted internationally on July 28th 1951 and was put in writing in the treaty since known as the Convention of Geneva “relating to the refugee status”. The convention was amended with the New York protocol of July 31st 1967 and ever since is enforced intact.

In 1200 B.C., in the end of the Copper Age and the beginning of the Iron Age, 52 heroes of the Ancient Greece embarked on “Argo”, the biggest and most famous ship of the ancient times, and traveled from the port of Colhis (ancient Iolkos) to an eastern shore of the Euxine (Black) Sea, known nowadays as the city of Tosis (Former Russian Republic of Georgia). The purpose of the journey was to bring back to the King of Colhis, Pelias, and the Golden Fleece, which was guarded by a dragon. According to the ancient legend the owner of the Fleece gained immortality.The journey hided extreme danger and surprise for the Argonauts, as they had to confront nature, hostile nations and as well as the range of some of the Gods.

In our days, everyone travels on a ship, our own Argo, chasing an utopia, a dream, crossing the Symplegades (Clashing Islands), the difficulties in life. Some may return to Colhis, as others may lost their way and experience only the joy of the effort. What counts is the journey, the struggle and the dream. We invite you to experience this journey together.

The revival of the ancient Greek myth is a fact, as on June 2007 a detailed copy of Argo with 52 rowers will embark from the port of Volos (Ancient Iolkos), following the same route with the ancient Argo.The Cultural Club “Xarta of Culture”, http://www.xarta.gr/, supporting the expedition has already produced a great musical play titled “Argonauts”, performed by the internationally famous singer Nena Venetsanou, on the music of Giannis Tantsis and the lyrics of Giorgos Tsitroulis.We are inviting you to participate with a painting of your choice and inspiration (a landscape on A4 canvas) to symbolize the sail of the ship, which will be attached to a pre-sketched ship of the same dimensions, or creates something of the fable in paper or cardboard A4Your paintings will be exposed in the premises of the music halls where the concerts of the “Argonauts” will take place, in different parts of the planet, as a form of “moving expedition”.Forty (40) of those paintings, selected by the Artistic Committee, will be included in the flyer of the cd “Argonauts” (distributed on 2007 – 2008).

Afterwards the end of exhibitions, the artworks will be given as donation, in museum, that will be announced at an early date.Title: Argonauts.Material: painting, drawing artist stamp in clothor on paper with any mediaSize: A4 or 9h10cm in clothAll work will be exhibited.No Jury, no returns, no fee.Documentations to all.On line documentation:http://mailart-greece-argo.blogspot.com/Deadline until 20 November 2007

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The committee was created in Greece and is formed by distinguished artist, living in different countries. It was created in order to achieve an international contact through art and especially through mail art. This is the reason why a number of artists from many parts of the world were asked to participate in this exhibition.

The moral support that they offer is their participation in this exhibition and their assistance in the promotion of mail art in my country, as well as the protection of this project from individuals who may take advantage of it for non-artistic aims. I wish to thank all artists for their participation in this project.

The artists are the following:

International Honorary Artistic Committee

Aitchison Martha – UK

Anastasiadou Ourania - Greece

Arleta - Greece

Baroni Vittore – Italy

Costis - Greece

Grandinetti Claudio - Italy

Janssen Ruud - Netherlands

Kamperelic Dobrica –Serbia

Komianou Aria - Greece

Ktistopoulou Maria - Greece

Kwan Lorraine – Canada

Markaki Jennie - Greece

Padín Clemente – Uruguay

Politis George - Greece

Restrepo Tulio - Colombia

Spanopoulos Stefanos – Greece - Spain

Spathi Litsa – Greece – Netherlands

Spiliopoulos Marios - Greece

Tsakiris Yorgos - Greece

Tsalamata Vicky - Greece

Yannadakis Manolis – Greece

-For the support of Exhibition was created tow artistic committee from Greeks mail artists:

the artists.org

Thomai Kontou - Art

A pointing out for the artists:

The natured exhibition for the project: “psychedelic” has be donehttp://melina-athens-mailart.blogspot.com/Our collaboration with “consulate of culture” was up to the hospitality in their site, and the collaboration of the natural exhibition in Elassona.The site: leukipoli.gr/mailart , is not a mail artsite, but it has been created only for the: 1st mail art exhibition in Greece, only for Elassona .Consequently there have been used our own files for other purposes and benefit. The association that handles the sitedoes not consist of artists and we don’t have any connection with them and them projects this announce.Thomai Kontou: painter- mail artist, curator of the project.